Were Present or Was Present?
Both Are Grammatically Correct, but It Depends on the Situation Which One Would Be Appropriate. Generally Speaking, We Use the Plural with Everything Except...
Both are grammatically correct, but it depends on the situation which one would be appropriate. Generally speaking, we use the plural with everything except one, and no counts as not one. No students were present. There are, however, two exceptions.
When to use was and were?
If you want to remember easily, you can think of was/were as the past tense form of the auxiliary verbs am, is and are. Generally, “was is used for singular objects and “were” is used for plural objects. So, you will use “was” with I, he, she and it while you will use “were” with you, we and they.
Can we use were in present tense?
Meaning - Were is the past tense of the verb are. ... Since were means the same as the past tense of are in this sentence, it is the correct word to use. SUGGESTION: To test whether were is the correct word to use in a sentence, see if you can use are in its place, putting the sentence into the present tense.